The other day I was watching a Star Trek episode when they quietly slipped something by: someone found that the computer records were mistaken. He didn't say that it was intentional or malicious; just mistaken. I'm not sure if I ever saw that before in a sci-fi story. I wish I knew of a hard-core sci-fi reader to ask if he has ever run across this.
Today, people tend to believe whatever the computer says. Did it ever occur to them that few if any people make their living by correcting errors stored in a computer?
Have you ever taken a trip with a map or gadget junkie? He can be staring right at a road, but if his high-tech gadget tells him the road isn't supposed to be there, he won't trust his lying-eyes. He would never question the computer in the sense of 'garbage in, garbage out'; instead, he thinks he will solve the problem by punching his way through the menu system.
Before there were computers for people to have blind faith in, there were books. For 500 years after Gutenberg people tended to take the written word more seriously than it deserved.
The limiting case of this modern superstition is the belief in computer modeling. In fact the superstition is so extreme that some people will be impressed by the very mention of 'computer modeling', even when the modeling is deemed evidence for something that is to the gain of the group or institution that is paying for the computer modeling.
Comments
James Lovelock who has been ridiculed for decades for the wrong reasons, but is now taken seriously by the few has it absolutely right.
Be independent, observe, explore and experiment in real life not the virtual mode based on models,films or books.
m
I suppose at one time in history, the compass was considered the high-tech gadget of its day. But it didn't depend on "garbage in, garbage out."
M,
I agree with your last sentence. I'm not familiar with James Lovelock.